4 Reasons Why Full-time RV Life is Good for Your Relationship- (there are many more)

Dean  (the husband)
Shalane  (the wife  :O)

My wife and I have met many people over the past year and have had the opportunity to share with them the enthusiasm we have for living in a travel trailer full-time.  As you might imagine, many people want to know why anyone would live in such tight quarters with their spouse.  When they find out we are teachers, many of them assume it is because we are too poor to own a regular home.  rofl Good one, Babe!  They are surprised to find out that we actually own four rental houses.  The simple fact remains, we love living in an RV, because we enjoy being around each other.

Those of you that have read our earlier blogs know that we describe each other as best friends.  In fact, each morning, I hold my wife’s hand and thank our Heavenly Father for blessing me with being able to spend each day with the most beautiful woman in the world.  It's true, he does.  I'm a lucky girl.  As I think of the last 20 days or so, less than 8 hours have been spent without her within 26 feet of me.  (26 feet is the size of our travel trailer.) Living in an RV with my wife is one of the biggest perks of this lifestyle.  I think when I have pms, he wishes the trailer were just a little bit bigger so that he would have a place escape.
If you are considering a jump into full-time RVing but are unsure if living with someone in such a confined space is a good idea, then let me give you some advantages to consider.

1) Memories- There have been times when we have seen a remarkable view, or have had a great experience of some kind with, and after awhile, we forget about it.  Then, something will trigger that memory in one of us, and we will share it with each other.  Many times I have thought to myself that if she had not remembered it, I don't know if  I would have ever recalled it on my own.  Plus, I'm the one that takes all the pictures.  :O)  Without those, it would be so much more difficult to remember things.
Dean's right, it's really fun when your partner brings up a memory that you haven't thought about in a long time.  

2) Splitting the Unpleasant Tasks-  My wife hates laundry with a passion.  That's NOT an exaggeration.  However, I use to work in a laundromat  in college, and it really doesn’t bother me at all.  I didn't know you use to work in a laundromat!  My wife empties out the black tank.  I know in most RV households it's just the opposite.  The wife does the laundry, and the husband takes care of the tanks.  The truth is that my wife has a much, much more sensitive sense of smell than I do.  I don’t know why, but she just started taking care of that task on her own.  Perhaps, I didn’t do it well enough or maybe she was just grateful that I do the laundry.  BOTH!  I don’t know, but either way, we have a good arrangement that really works for us.  Splitting the tasks can be a wonderful thing.

3) Communication-  I feel like a lot of couples lose the spark that bought them together in the first place.  Too often they end up going to opposite rooms in their house and isolating themselves from each other.  I remember times when we lived in a house that we actually text each other from room to room instead of actually talking face to face.  Living in an RV full-time keeps this from happening.  Even though Shalane might be doing something else in the trailer, she is always in sight.  When something crosses one of our minds, we can and do share it right then.  We don’t have to think that we will need to try to communicate it later when we see each other.  It's not a mystery that communication is the key to any successful relationship.  When you're in a smaller space, you automatically communicate more.

4) Sharing Interests-  I decided to take up oil painting a year ago.  My wife was very supportive of this, as I would share my paintings, she started thinking that it might be something that she would like to try.  We started painting together.  TV shows are another thing that we've found we enjoy together.  Shalane started watching a show called “Swamp People.”  I thought that it would be a show that I would have no interest in ever watching, but because I couldn't escape it, now, every Thursday we look forward to watching it together.  I guess what I am trying to say is that in a “regular” house, there is a good chance that these things would never have happened.  I would go to one side of the house and do what I wanted, and she would go to the other side of the house and do what she wanted.  However, thanks to the close proximity that we have to each other, we share things all the time!  We flirt a lot too.  ;O)

I hope that each of you that consider transitioning to this wonderful lifestyle, focus in on the positives that can come from this way of living.  I consider it to be one of the greatest blessings in my life!  Ditto!  Happy Trails!

How Do I Get Started; The Power of a Dream

Dean  (the husband)
Shalane  (the wife  :O)

Sometimes it is hard just to get started thinking about full-timing in an RV.  We had the opportunity to go over to a friends house last night for a game of hand and foot.  (For those of you that have never heard of it, it is a card game)   They are a wonderful family that we just love to be around.  This family consists of a couple in their 30’s and 5 children.  Every time we go there we are greeted with warm smiles and laughter.  I think one of the reasons why they like my wife and I, is that we are somehow strangely different then most people.  After all, were fairly young, not retired, not poor and live in a 26 foot travel trailer.  I really think the husband really wants to be a full-timer as well….someday.  

The question for most people is, when is that day?  For us, that day came when our youngest child left the house to strike out on her own.  We became empty-nesters, and for us, it was the perfect time to start our new lifestyle.  For a young family with 5 children and a large ranch, now just does not seem like the right time.  I am not suggesting that a family with kids needs to wait.  I read a fascinating story in an RV magazine about a family with 10 children in Hawaii that lived in a small campervan.  They had enough money to live in a regular home but wanted their kids to have the beach as their living room.  I believe they only used the camper as a place to change, sleep, and eat if it was raining.  My wife and I agree that if a miracle  happened and we were blessed with another child, we would not move back into a “sticks and bricks” house.  There are far too many blessings that come from our “mobile” lifestyle, and we simply would not want to change that. 

So let me tell you HOW we actually decided what the right time was for us.  First of all, when our youngest was a freshman in high school, we moved into a home that was right across the street from an RV dealership.  I count this as a great blessing and a MAJOR influence in our current lifestyle.  Dean and I LOVED going across the street to window shop.  We talked over and over about how much we would love to live and travel in an RV when we retire.  That spurred Dean to start doing research on work camping.  We discovered a whole world of income opportunities for full-time RVers.  This led to conversations about what kind of RV would be best for us, what we wanted out of the lifestyle, how early could we actually start and how would we get our finances in order in such a way that we could make this happen.   We finally came to the conclusion that we should continue teaching in Nevada for a few a little while longer until we can get in our ten years.  At that point, Dean will be 56 and will be able to take early retirement.  We purchased some rental properties and invested in some stock as long term investments.  Now, even though we still have five years to teach, we decided to go ahead and make the jump to the RV for a couple of different reasons.  First, to try it out.  Maybe we would live in it for a few months and hate it.  NOT!  We are loving it, and we don’t find it too small for us.  We like each other a whole gobby ton, so we are happy in such a small space.  Second, if we are living in our RV, we are not burning cash on rent or investing in a failed housing market.  We have been able to put quite a bit of cash into savings in preparations for our early retirement and over the road adventures.  I have to stress that the MOST important thing in being able to live the way we way to live is that we dreamed about it!  We visualized it!  We discussed it as if it was preordained, or inevitable.  You have to dream of what you want!  You have to believe in what you dream and know that it will happen! Whether it‘s traveling in an RV or owning your dream house.  You have to BELIEVE and move forward, KNOWING that your decisions will lead you to YOUR destination.   Corny?  Only if you think so, but ask anyone that is living their dream, and they will tell you the same thing.  You MUST believe in the POWER of your thoughts.

As you can see, there really isn’t a specific best time.  It really just depends on your situation.  I will say this, if we didn’t at least start the dream and know that it was going to happen, it probably would NOT have happened.    Everything worthy of doing, demands a little attention and planning.  So, if your wandering around in a life that is not what you want, stop, rethink, make a plan and start visualizing yourself  living your ideal life.  Happy Dreams, and Happy Trails!